Facebook Insights: What does “Talking about this” mean?

This post tackles what Facebook mean when they use the term “Talking about this”. No, they are not listening in to every conversation that everyone is having in real life, that would be freaky! What Facebook mean, is people who have have created, what they call, a story.

This means your Fans have taken an action on your Page that will be visible to their friends.

For example:

they clicked on the like

they made a comment

they shared an update on their Page or Profile

Facebook looks at Unique people.

So if the same person has liked, commented and shared a post, it counts as one.

If one person has liked an update, a second person left a comment and a third person shared the post, it counts as three.

It is a great measure of the level of interaction or engagement that your Fans have with the Page.

The figures for “Are talking about this” can be found next to the number of Likes.

This figure is very important to keep an eye on. The more interaction you have on your Page, the more visible it will be to your Fan’s friends and the greater the Reach.

The figure measures the number of unique people who have interacted on your Page in the past week.

This is the number of people who have

Liked your Page

Posted to the wall

Liked a post

Commented on a Post

Shared a Post

Responded to a Question or Poll

Responded to an Event you have created

Mentioned your Page

Tagged your Page in a Photograph

Checked into your Page Place

Recommended your Page

It is useful to see what proportion of “Talking about this” you have compared to the number of Likes on your Page. The higher the better. I have seen Pages with a high number of Fans, but nobody is “talking”.

Each post has also got a figure for “talking about this” which is specific for the post. It includes likes, comments and shares.

Facebook use another term, just to confuse you. In the picture above you will can see that they have a term called “engaged users” which is different to “talking about this”

“Engaged users” is a measure of every unique person who clicks on an update. So it includes all the people who are “talking about this” as well as people who may have clicked on a photograph, or clicked through on a link. In the example given of the Fanpage Friday post, the difference is probably 7 new people clicking through to see people’s Fanpages.

So how do you improve your “talking about this” metrics?

You need to encourage engagement by asking questions, having interesting content and responding to people who leave comments and posts. Give people a reason to talk about your Page.

The next post will cover how to use Facebook Insights to get to know your fans. Please share this series with people you know who have Facebook Pages, thank you.

Nicky Kriel is a Social Media Coach & Trainer inspiring, educating and empowering Business Owners to use Social Media more strategically. She is also the author of How to Twitter for Business Success. For more information visit http://www.nickykriel.com or to find out about her courses that she runs in Guildford visit http://www.nickykriel.com/courses

Nicky Kriel

Nicky Kriel is a Social Media Coach & Trainer inspiring, educating and empowering Business Owners to use Social Media more strategically. She is also the author of How to Twitter for Business Success. For more information visit http://www.nickykriel.com or to find out about her courses that she runs in Guildford visit http://www.nickykriel.com/courses

I was wondering about what the “talking about this” meant and what the difference was between that and “liking” a page. Thanks for clarifying.

If you want another blog idea, maybe you you could explain why some business pages don’t look much different than personal pages and some of them look more like a web site, or at least a giant colorful poster. I’ve wondered that, too. Is it paid advertising? Or do they know some other trick that I don’t?

Hey Nicky, I have gone through your post and I must say that you are correct. Loved your post. I have landed in this blog while touring in the blog land. In the recent time SMM is a major thing for SEO. And most of the clients are looking for Likes, Talking about this etc etc. Your article is really helpful for the newbies. Thanks a lot – looking for more from you.

I am wondering if you have noticed what I am seeing on a Facebook post insight. The number in insights for “talking about this” for a certain post is a much higher number than the number of shares, likes and comments I actually see on the post itself. Any idea what that’s all about?

Hello! Thanks for the clarification. I have a newborn photography page and my reach is through the roof- 2k but my “talking about this” number is only 30.And even worse, my page gas only 55 likes and is 5 months old. This is so discouraging! I have even put in my descriptions of the photo’s “if you enjoy this photo please like my page” but it doesn’t seem people are even doing THAT let alone doing any other action such as liking or sharing my photo’s in order to show up on their friend’s newsfeeds! Any quick suggestions on this? Would be a good blog too but I’d love some quick advise now too :o)

Very interesting to read your postings. I’m new to using social media, so insights are very helpful. At present, I have four ‘Likes’ and one person talking about this, so now I understand what the difference is… I just need a few more now – but everyone starts with one, so I’m pleased! Thanks for your help.

This is such a useful post, thank you – and explained in a way even I can understand! I was confused by the fact that there were more ‘talking abouts’ than ‘likes’ on my page (only 12 and 10 respectively… sob) but now I understand. Slightly strange that people are engaging with the page without liking it – but I’m not complaining!

Hello again, just wondering if there is a time-frame associated with ‘Talking about this..’ My Likes are still there but recently, the ‘Talking abouts’ seem to have dropped. Is it just the passage of time or is there a way to keep people talking?

Hi Maxime
“Talking about this” is a measure of how much activity you have had in the past week. (There is a 2-3 day lag in reporting the insights so it shows the activity levels for a week that ended 3 days ago.) So it will fluctuate from week to week depending on how much activity you have had on your Page.

Thanks for clarifying so nicely. I was wondering about this stuff, though I had a fair idea, but wanted to reconfirm myself. Basically why I was wondering more because right now I have 175 likes · 168 talking about this type of figure, which is pretty much unusual I believe for a company page … I do not pay to promote, but yea I promote it a lot, organically though … nice to know that it’s going for great. Cheers and thanks again for clarifying so nicely. Ellen

I have post the first of a series of content on Pete Rose and trying to get him into the Baseball Hall of Fame. It has been very interesting with unexpected results. The LIKEs are 4,301; the “talking about this” is 16,592. The “engaged users” is 23,480. I am trying to understand the numbers, what I did to generate them, and to duplicate it more often. Any comments ?

Hi Ted
Facebook have recently introduced a new version of Facebook Insights which I think is an improvement and I am not sure which version you are on. Does your insights look like the one in this blog post? How I would interpret this is that people who haven’t liked your Page are interacting with your Page because their friends who have liked your Page are talking about it. It is a good thing to have so much interaction because it improves the visibility of your Page although I suspect you would prefer them to Liked the Page too. It is worth looking at your individual posts and seeing how effective they have been. Do more of what works well. There is an incredible amount of data available on the Insights when you know where to look. Have you read the other posts I wrote around this subject?

Thanks a lot!
this was very insightful. I am a recently published author and have a Facebook page for the same and this bit of information was very helpful for me!
There are 97 poeple who are talking about my page in a matter of a week.

Thanks so much for blogging on this. I’m impressed with how clear and easy you make it all! I’ve just started my parenting Facebook page (www.facebook.com/megganmamma) and your blog has been ver useful. Thanks!!

As much as I read about everything you post. ( I love it…subscribed) …I guess I’m just plain stupid. I just changed my cover picture on my Facebook. 3 hours later I have 23 likes and 6 comments. But Facebook is telling me that 5 people saw this post! How is this possible??

Thank you very much for the explanation. I guess my site is doing pretty well with over 300 likes and 158 talking about this. However, I have not gotten a single inquire about the services I offer. I also not seeing any comments. Am I missing something?
Thanks again!
Pedro